Everyone Sleeps Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

The morning sun goes down
and the moon appears in the sky
as mother prepares bed for her child.
The birds find branches of trees
to perch on as they fold their wings
in the night; the candle is lighted
and soon it flickers and disappears.

The baby is born in the morning,
rises up at noon and sleeps in the evening;
from youth to adulthood he becomes,
and must succumb to the reality
of his precious mortal body;
Like the sun and moon, the birds
and the candle, this mortal man
finds his grave his mortal bed.